This TV special on Tuesday night fully confirmed that the Dutch league is one of the best for young players hoping to build a career in Europe.
Worth checking out the "Aussies Abroad Socceroos European Adventure" one hour special which debuted Tuesday night on ESPN.
Repeated Thursday ESPN 5 pm ("Aussies Abroad Socceroos European Adventure") and 6 pm ("Socceroos World Cup Special")
A one hour special on Socceroos currently playing in Europe focusing on Tommy Oar and Adam Sarota at Utecht in the Netherlands, Jason Davidson at Heracles in the Netherlands, Mathew Leckie at FSV Frankfurt, Matt Ryan at FC Bruges and Dario Vidosic at FC Sion. Only Sarota has missed the World Cup squad.
Really well done with lengthy interviews with all six who proved quite articulate.
This would be a good one to watch for any young Kiwis contemplating playing overseas.
FC Utrecht were very obliging and manager Jan Wouters (70 cap Dutch international ex-Ajax and Bayern) gave some honest insights into his Aussie charges and the progress they had made.
All the young Aussies playing in the Erdivisie said it was an excellent league as a young player developing and they preferred it to bigger leagues such as Germany where it's hard to break in to the first team and playing time can be limited.
Our boy Ryan is on to a good gig at PEC.
The Eredivisie is proving one of the most popular Euro leagues for young Aussie players with three at Utrecht (Michael Zullo didn't feature in the program), Davidson at Heracles, Eli Babalj (ex Melbourne Heart) at AZ Alkmaar and Trent Sainsbury Ryan's team mate at Zwolle. Brett Holman played for AZ until 2012.
In total, 20 Aussies have played in the Eredivisie (there have been only eleven Argentinians). Makes our total of three look rather lame.